Quality Delivery

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and the Curtain Wall Coalition (CWC) have issued a joint statement applauding the U.S. Commerce Department’s decision in the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) relating to the Shenyang Yuanda Aluminum Industrial Eng’g Co. v. United States scope case.

According to the statement, comments were filed on the draft Third Remand Decision on January 6, 2017, and the Commerce Department filed its Final Third Remand Redetermination with the court on January 19, 2017. The Commerce Department maintained its position in the final Third Remand Decision, despite responding to all the parties’ comments in nearly 50 pages of the final 80-page decision, according to the statement. The groups say this means that Yuanda’s curtain wall unit imports are still covered by antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders.

The decision concerns the Commerce Department’s March 27, 2014, scope ruling regarding the AD and CVD orders on aluminum extrusions from the People’s Republic of China in which Yuanda USA Corp., and Shenyang Yuanda Aluminum Industry Engineering Co. Ltd.’s (collectively, Yuanda) curtainwall units that are produced and imported as complete curtain wall systems were within the scope of the orders.

According to the statement, Yuanda has challenged the decision three times, each time noting that the curtainwall was “unitized and imported in phases pursuant to a sales contract” to supply complete curtainwall, and was not within the scope of the AD and CVD orders on aluminum extrusions imported from China. In the Final Third Remand Determination, the court upheld the Curtain Wall Coalition’s argument that the unitized curtainwall sections were indeed covered by the scope of the orders.

“It’s important to remember that the China tariffs remain in place while our litigation is pending,” says David Spooner, Partner with Barnes & Thornburg LLP, and attorney for the Curtain Wall Coalition’s trade case. “These tariffs, which we are fighting to keep, currently range from 49 percent to 229 percent, depending on the identity of the Chinese exporter.”

Jeff Henderson, AEC president, says the Council is pleased with the decision in this case.

“These Chinese extruders will not simply give up. They will continue to appeal this case and challenge the orders until they find a sympathetic judge who will rule in their favor,” he says. “The Chinese are currently focused on the U.S. West Coast curtainwall market but the rest of the country is likely to feel the pressure soon. If curtain wall extrusions are not subject to the tariffs carried by our orders, they will simply overrun domestic production.”